National Oceanographic Partnership Program to honor NOAA, BOEM, USGS and 14 other organizations

The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) will present the 2015 Excellence in Partnering Award to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the team that conceived, managed and conducted the Atlantic Canyons: Pathways to the Abyss project. The ceremony will take place on Tuesday, February 23, from 1:00–2:30 p.m. at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans during Ocean Sciences 2016, along with a screening of the 23-minute HD video produced as part of the project.

NOAA Fisheries and NOAA Research scientists collaborate on vulnerability assessment

NOAA scientists have released the first multispecies assessment of just how vulnerable U.S. marine fish and invertebrate species are to the effects of climate change. The study examined 82 species that occur off the Northeastern U.S., where ocean warming is occurring rapidly. Researchers found that most species evaluated will be affected, and that some are likely to be more resilient to changing ocean conditions than others. The study appears in PLOS ONE, an online scholarly science journal.

The United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study by NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

The study used a sophisticated mathematical model to evaluate future cost, demand, generation and transmission scenarios. It found that with improvements in transmission infrastructure, weather-driven renewable resources could supply most of the nation’s electricity at costs similar to today’s.

Lawrence Livermore scientists, working with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and university colleagues, have found that half of the global ocean heat content increase since 1865 has occurred over the past two decades.

NOAA and Raytheon successfully demonstrated several improvements to the Coyote Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) while completing a mid-flight launch from the NOAA P-3 Hurricane Hunter aircraft on January 7, 2016. The flight verified new technology designed to improve Coyote’s ability to collect vital weather data to improve hurricane forecasts.

Citizen scientists around the world, not just those in the United States, can now submit weather observations and view reports on the go using the newly upgraded mPING smart phone application. Developers from NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory and the University of Oklahoma’s Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies announced the app’s expanded reach and utility Monday during the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans.

University of Michigan, NOAA food web study shared with resource managers to help inform decisions

ANN ARBOR—If they successfully invade Lake Erie, Asian carp could eventually account for about a third of the total weight of fish in the lake and could cause declines in most fish species—including prized sport and commercial fish such as walleye, according to a new computer modeling study by scientists at the University of Michigan, NOAA's Great Environmental Lakes Research Laboratory, other U.S. and Canadian research institutions.

NOAA and Army Corps issue forecast, consider El Niño potential impact

Scientists from NOAA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environment Canada have issued a six-month forecast for water levels to be at or above average on Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie into spring of 2016. Lake Ontario water levels are expected to remain close to monthly averages. However, the impacts of the anticipated strong El Niño and other atmospheric anomalies on the forecast are difficult to predict.

New research projects greenhouse effect from substances that replaced ozone-depleting products

A new paper appearing online in Atmospheric Environment coauthored by researchers at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory looked at the climate implications of various proposals for future HFC use that are being discussed this week under the United Nations Montreal Protocol, the global agreement that protects the ozone layer.

The 2015 Antarctic ozone hole area was larger and formed later than in recent years, according to scientists from NOAA and NASA.

On Oct. 2, 2015, the ozone hole expanded to its peak of 28.2 million square kilometers (10.9 million square miles), an area larger than the continent of North America. Throughout October, the hole remained large and set many area daily records.